Friday, May 14, 2010

The Queen and Her Personal Trainer Buy Hollywood Hills House Together

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Back in October of 2009 Your Mama discussed the Hollywood Hills hideaway, listed at $1,397,000, owned by actor Henry Simmons, a knee buckling piece of hot chocolate who has strutted his muscular stuff on Another World, NYPD Blue and Shark. Remember that bunnies?

Once Your Mama discussed the property it quickly fell off our radar until this morning when we heard from the boys at Celebrity Address Aerial who informed us that the buyer of the Mister Simmons' former crib is, in fact, another celebrity. According to property records the remodeled Mediterranean was snatched up by none other that Dana Owens–otherwise known as Queen Latifah–and her, er, trainer Jeanette Jenkins who paid $1,340,000 for the house in mid-December of 2009.

Miss Latifah, a renaissance ladee if there ever was one, rocketed to fame as a Grammy winning rapper/hip hopper/R&B artist (All Hail the Queen, Black Reign, Order in the Court) turned tee-vee star (Living Single) turned daytime talk show host (The Queen Latifah Show) turned Emmy and Oscar nominated movie star (Chicago, Bringing Down the House, Beauty Shop, Hairspray, The Secret Life of Bees) turned torch song chanteuse (The Dana Owens Album) turned Wal-Mart and Jenny Craig spokeswoman. Lo-ward have mercy, this beehawtcha is so damn bizzy Your Mama wonders if she's ever got time so set down and pee or if her handlers just strap a colostomy bag to her hip and tell her to keep it moving.

Miss Jenkins–frequentlyphotographedaroundtown with The Queen–is not just Miss Latifah's, uhm, trainer, she's also the host of a fitness program on the boob-toob. She also once won $50,000 eating lord only knows what on that horrible and upsetting Fear Factor program, is the creator of an exercise video called Bikini Bootcamp, and penned a book called The Hollywood Trainer Weight-Loss Plan: 21 Days to Make Healthy Living a Lifetime Habit, which is sort of ironic given that her number one, ergh, client is the not exactly slim or in shape looking Queen Latifah. Now listen chickens, before any of you chubby chasers, big gurls and/or beefy boys get all up on your high horse and start calling Your Mama names listen up and listen good: Your Mama ain't got nuthin' against a gal with some meat on her bones, we just think it's ironic that Miss Jenkin's star client is a not particularly fit lookin' ladee who made boo-coo bucks shilling herself out as a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig and not, mind you, for Miss Jenkins.

Anyhoo, getting back to the real estate...Your Mama don't know butter knife from a tube of toothpaste about Miss Latifah's person life so even though rumorsabound we're not speculating or gossiping on what kind of special relationship these two long term ladee friends may or may not have. However, property records are quite clear that the property in question was purchased in both of their names. Surely Miss Latifah is not the first big shit celebrity to buy and co-own a house with her, uh, personal trainer, no?

Listing information shows that walled, gated and perfectly private "mini-compound" includes a 2,096 square foot house with wide plank chocolate brown hardwood floors, 3 bedrooms and 2.5 poopers. The interior spaces include a living room with a glass tile fireplace surround, a large dining room that opens to the side yard through French doors and a huge family room/kitchen with hexagonal Mexican tile floors and wall of multi-paned windows that open the room to a terrace with sunken hot tub that stretches along the back of the house and a bamboo surrounded lower terrace.

Somewhere on the property, Mister Simmons had an in home fitness center complete with rubber matting, free weights and a treadmill. Your Mama has no idea if Miss Latifah and Miss Jenkins plan to keep the home gym–or if either of them will even occupy the residence–but it surely must have been a desirable feature to a trainer chick like Miss Jenkins.

Given that Miss Latifah already has a privately situated and much larger 6,780 square foot house with 5 bedrooms and 7 poopers in the Bev Hills Post Office that records show she picked up in July of 2005 for $5,400,000, it seems unlikely she'll be packing up and decamping for this house in a good but far less exclusive zip code. But stranger things have happened chicken. Never underestimate the wacky real estate ways of the rich and famous.

Records also show that Miss Latifah also owns several properties in New Jersey including a 9.52 are spread with a 5,860 square foot mcmansion in Colts Neck, NJ that she snatched up in June of 2001 for $2,142,552, a 7.3 acre property with a 2,793 square foot house in Monmouth Junction, NJ that she bought in November of 2007 for $387,500 (her father's name also appears on the records), and a contemporary house in Wayne, NJ that was purchased in May of 1992 for $400,000. Your Mama's momma's wish they were Italian mafia cuzzins–who are not, the children will note, even Italian–have long lived around the corner from this house and from them we hear that the house is occupied by Miss Latifah's momma Rita. Records also show that in July of 2004 Miss Latifah paid $140,000 for a 792 square foot house in the historic but unlikely town of Joppa MD.

Mister Simmons went on to pay $2,000,000 for a 5 bedroom and 6 pooper crib with 5,282 square feet in Studio City, CA.

Both Edgewood Arsenal and Aberdeen Proving Ground are close by to Joppa. Edgewood Aresenal abuts it and APG is just a few miles away; even less by water.

You were right on both accounts.

Talk about scary stuff growing up: they do ordinance testing in and over the water. We'd often be out on our boat during these times in summer and they'd shut down the water way and you could watch their testing.

Since I was a child, I used to have irrational fears like "what if they forget to shut down boat traffic?"

My high school was within a few hundred feet of a bunch of buried mustard gas they found from WWII.

The Queen is actually called King Latifah. I just wish she would come out already. Mama, yeah I wondered at one point, but no more....why is she overweight and has a trainer on payroll? I dropped a couple sizes on a protein diet.

Queen Latifah, I love the house that you co-signed for your trainer to get. It looks beautiful to live in when you can afford it. I'm glad that you lost weight by going to Jenny Craig to work out. You look beautiful now and I love the way you have your New Jersey accent talk going. You are one of my favorite actors any way reguardless of what kind of lifetyle your living because it's anyone's business what you do or go through behind close doors. Happy Hollywood wishes to you and your trainer.I love you Queen Latifah. From Yvonne Collins

Actually the previous owner was an entertainment lawyer, Nina Shaw. Unless she's somehow-not really-not at all married to Henry Simmons...yeah ya got that part wrong. Nice house in any case. Glad a trainer and client can buy a house to co-habitate as a couple...I mean friends... O_o